Highlights - Two Weeks

In my homeschool (and life, because they are essentially the same thing) over the past two weeks...
We went to Toledo, Ohio for a judo tournament.
(I already shared a few funny things I heard on the trip in another post.)
*Warning: proud Mama brag*
My oldest son earned 1st place in his judo division and my youngest won 2nd place in his. Woo hoo Boys!

So, we were heading out of town for judo and my littlest squirt REQUESTED that we take Fred with us. Who's Fred, you ask?

Source: lifeoffredmath.com via Becky on Pinterest

We recently broke down and bought the Life of Fred math curriculum to see what all the hype is about. Both boys are hooked. When my 9-year-old wants to take a math book on a Spring Break getaway...I might as well have discovered GOLD. I'm curious to see how long this lasts. (BTW: I'm enjoying the books too, but have been surprised at the number of grammatical errors that we have found. Oh well, at least it's not an English curriculum.)

To cram as much as we could into top off our weekend away, we visited the Toledo Museum of Art. Toledo (a.k.a. Glass City) has a building in its museum which is totally devoted to glass. It was fascinating to watch the glass blowing demonstrations.
*sidenote: They offer glass-blowing classes each weekend. If I lived closer, I would SO BE DOING THIS!

We hit the jackpot by going to the museum that particular weekend. Chamber Music winners from Bowling Green University performed trios, quartets, and quintets while we were there.

I think I might have been a little "high" by the time we left. (As a homeschool mom and an artist...I was on overload.) So much culture in one trip! Did I mention that it was all FREE?

Later that week, we celebrated Good Friday and Easter.
We made Resurrection rolls, opened up resurrection eggs (my son has a WONDERFUL Sunday School teacher who mailed them to us) and colored hot boiled eggs with crayons.

We talked about the life and death of Christ and the victory He provides. This season reminded me to be thankful that we homeschool. We get to focus on Christ everyday as we study our world. (Now I just need to MAKE SURE I'M CHOOSING TO DO THAT.)

After Easter, we killed about 5 rabbits.
*I'm singing Elmer Fudd in my head, "Kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit..."*
For those of you opposed to killing bunnies, you can relax...they were all made of chocolate.

Aunt Kris always gets a little carried away at the annual Easter egg hunt and all children get a pile of chocolate confections bigger than their heads.
I forgot about this little tradition when I filled my boys' baskets and got them chocolate crosses. Can you say, "Chocolardiac Arrest"?

On Tuesday, a homeschool assignment was:
"What practical (and fun) things can we do with all this Easter candy?"

We (literally) hammered the large items until they were bits and pieces. (Don't worry, they still have enough miniature Twix candy bars and marshmallow peeps set aside to keep them bouncing off my walls for weeks.)
Someday soon, when we have company to SHARE with, we will dip marshmallows, pretzels, and strawberries into our mutilated bunnies leftover chocolate. Oh, AND we plan to make some of these :

Source: cargilefamilyrecipes.com via Becky on Pinterest

(except we will add peppermint oil to our chocolate rather than use thin mints)

The final addition that Easter added to our homeschool this year, was the wood-burning kit that Boy #2 received in his Easter basket. He's artistic, but I think this would get ANY BOY interested in art.
"Here honey, come play with FIRE for school."

I'm almost finished with this little wrap-up, but don't want to leave out one last experience from our homeschool adventures.
My girlfriend has been trying to get our family to try "Eat Right For Your Blood Type". It's a list of foods that are supposed to be beneficial or harmful to a person based on their blood type. Whether or not we buy into this new way of eating, it has sparked a lot of interesting conversations. And like any respectable homeschool family, we had to discuss it, research it, and take it a step further (to create more expense and work for ourselves.) We went ahead and ordered Blood Type Test Kits.

Amazon has them for $11 with free shipping, but
since we ordered four, it was cheaper to get them here. 

Our boys now know their blood types. They know all about RH factors, blood type ratios and genetic possibilities. They also know that a tiny prick to their finger is not something to cry about...but it doesn't feel all that "good" either.

I'd say we snuck in quite a bit of education along with our Easter vacation.
It's those special moments that keep a teacher (and her students) pressing on during these last precious (long) weeks of the school year.

Keep blogging about your activities friends, so I can keep being inspired in mine.
Thanks for reading,
Becky